1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to providing a dynamic continual improvement educational environment. In particular, the present invention relates to dynamic systems and methods for gathering/tracking data, automatically adapting to information about an individual (e.g., the individual's pace of learning or other information), selectively determining the type and difficulty of content provided to an individual, selectively providing an exposure frequency for the content, and/or enabling rapid development and design modifications within the educational environment.
2. Background and Related Art
Historically, a variety of techniques have been utilized to teach educational concepts with varying degrees of success. Some techniques include instructor-led classrooms, wherein a group of students are exposed to lessons given by the instructor. While this technique is available, a typical ratio of instructor per number of students limits the amount of individualized training that can occur with the students.
The emergence of the personal computer has allowed for electronic teaching techniques to be used, including a technique that allows multimedia to be used. Enhanced presentations are used in classroom environments to provide exciting/captivating educational lessons. While this technique may yield more interesting lessons, the amount of individualized training is not increased.
Computers have been utilized in other teaching techniques, such as computer based training (CBT), computer based instruction (CBI), or computer-assisted instruction (CAI). These computer based techniques allow a student to interface with a computer program having instructional content rather than an instructor to enable the classes to be available at the convenience of the student. Thus, while instructor-led classes can become full, computer based classes are always available.
Commonly, educational software provides information to the learner so that the information can be accessed in any sequence chosen by the learner, without any guidance, review or adaptivity, based on the needs of the learner.
In some computer based training, a series of static electronic lessons are provided that are separated by a prompt-response testing procedure. The testing procedure determines whether the student is allowed to progress to the next lesson or is alternatively required to return to additional instruction on the tested subject matter to better understand the material. These techniques monitor student progress and disseminate additional information as the student progresses.
Other educational software attempts to match the instruction to the preferred learning style of the student.
Other educational techniques employ computer technology, but are limited in scope to particular fields of instruction (e.g., instruction on the use of computer programs) or are limited in format to specific media (e.g., text and simulation exercises). Other techniques use lessons or objectives arranged in a predefined hierarchy, or focus on monitoring and evaluating the student rather than on providing instruction to the student.
Many current educational techniques utilize a static lesson format that is typically arranged in a predefined order. The lesson format is irrelevant to the individual needs of each student and requires conformity to a static learning method that may not fit a student's specific learning needs.
Thus, while educational techniques are available for use in teaching educational content, challenges still exist with the current techniques. For example, current techniques are typically static in nature, are time consuming in their creation, and the underlining principles of particular techniques are not strictly followed, preventing accurate analysis of their implementation. Accordingly, it would be an improvement in the art to augment or even replace current techniques with other techniques.